Keynote, invited, and upcoming talks

2025

• talk at ESPP conference, Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw, September 2-5
• two roundtables at Memory Studies Association conference, Prague, July 14-18
• talk at JAM X (Joint Action Meeting), Turin, July 9-12
• participating in two symposia at Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, SARMAC XV, County Kildare, Ireland, June 11-14
• probably at ARED conference Rational Animals?, Stirling, June 2-4 (sadly probably not at GEM2025, a fantastic conference on Generative Episodic Memory in Bochum, June 2-4)
• ‘Cognitive tools, wayfinding, and place memory: artistic and technological tensions’, at Cognitive Futures in the Humanities conference in Messina, Sicily, May 28-30
• commentary on Nathalia De Avila’s paper on body memory and panic disorders, for online conference Issues in Philosophy of Memory 4.5, May 22-23
• talk at London South Bank University, May 21
• ‘The dynamics of storage across memory ecologies’, keynote at Glasgow MemoryLab workshop day on ‘Storage and Retrieval: the brain and the archive’ alongside the Glasgow Collections Lab, May 8
• ‘Social memory and collective memory: group dynamics and the limits of memory studies’, keynote at Intersubjectivity and Collective Memory, workshop at the Centre for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen, April 24-25
• Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory events, April 14-17
• short talk ‘Memory beliefs and experience circa 1600’, online to the Memory Club of When Memories Come Alive, an interdisciplinary project (Cambridge/ Durham) on vividness and subjective experience, April 3
• seminar talk to University of Glasgow’s PPN (Philosophy, Psychology, and Neuroscience) research seminar, March 3

2024

• keynote talk on interdisciplinary research, British Academy Early Career Researcher Network showcase Scotland, Glasgow, November 18
• introducing online discussion on my paper ‘Situated Affects and Place Memory‘ at the International Memory Reading Group, September 24
• thesis defence committee, Ruhr University Bochum, September 6
• ‘Place memory: puzzles and plans’, talk at workshop Memory, Places and Navigation: interdisciplinary perspectives, Bochum, Germany, September 5
• participant in two panels, on ‘the interdisciplinary study of memory’ and ‘where can memory be found?’, summer school conference ‘Searching for memory between the mind and the world‘, Trento, Italy, August 28-31
• ‘Distributed remembering and cognitive philosophy’, online talk at Memory in Mind and World session of ‘Breaking down the silos: memory studies between cognition, culture, and political momentum’ project, July 23.
• talk at ‘Representing Memory’ research group meeting, University of Stirling, July 15
• ‘Place, home, and collaborative wayfinding’, online talk at Princeton workshop of Templeton project Concepts in Dynamic Assemblage: cultural evolution and human ways of being, July 13
• ‘Place memory: its nature and varieties, talk in submitted panel on Place, Emotion, Memory at ESPP (European Society for Philosophy & Psychology), Grenoble, July 2-5.
• ‘Constructing the past from multiple traces’, talk at IPM4, the 4th international philosophy of memory conference in Geneva, June 25-28
• ‘Remembering on the edge’, online talk for panel Emptiness and Vertigo in the Memory Palace, at ISEA, 19th international symposium on electronic art, Brisbane
• ‘Enculturation, material engagement, and cognitive history’, talk at XScape workshop on active inference and material engagement, University of Sussex, June 7
• ‘Emotions layered in traces and places: situated affect and the aesthetics of superposition’, talk in contributed panel symposium Emotion and Place: from 4E to 5E approaches to architecture and cities at From 4E to 5E Cognition: about Emotions, the 10-year anniversary conference of the Cognitive Futures in the Arts and Humanities Network, Catania, Sicily, June 3-5
• thesis defence commmittee at Institut Jean Nicod, EHESS, Paris, May 31
• ‘Starting with cognitive questions’, online talk, ‘Narrative Theory & Cognitive Science – still a problematic relationship?’, first workshop of the Narrative & Cognition Lab, Durham, May 31
• ‘Place and memory: disruptions and constructions’, talk at workshop The Other Side of Scaffolding and Niche Construction, Jyväskylä, Finland, May 23-24
• Visit to Copenhagen, Centre for Subjectivity Research, May 13-16: talk ‘Distributed affect and deep place knowledge’ on May 13
• ‘Place memory and the aesthetics of superposition’, talk in Oxford for Fiction and Other Minds seminar series, May 8
• ‘Collaborative recall: what happens when we remember the past together?’, public talk for Cafe Scientifique, University of Oxford, at the Dept of Pharmacology
• ‘What is it like to bat?’, talk at Cognition and Culture group seminar series, University of Exeter, May 1
• Small workshop on intrusive memories, University of York, April 18
• ‘What is it like to bat? Hitting, thinking, and the mind-body problem’, talk in Mind and Reason seminar series, University of York, April 17
• ‘Place and memory: constructing the past from multiple traces’, Leverhulme Lecture at Exploring Place workshop, University of York, April 16
• ‘Difference and dissensus in collaboration’, talk at Improvisation as praxis: music as a form of life, Berlin Festspiele, part of Berlin MaerzMusik Festival, March 23, following an improvisatory joint performance by Splitter Orchestra and Trondheim Jazz Orchestra at (Musical) Ethics Lab 6, March 22
• Short talk on interdisciplinarity, Humanities Lounge panel, University of Stirling, March 20
• ‘Otto in the wild: dementia and distributed cognition’, Leverhulme Lecture at CEDAR, University of Stirling Centre for Environment, Dementia, and Ageing Research, March 19
• ‘Teamwork and Trouble: risks and rewards of interdisciplinary collaboration’, workshop for early career researchers, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Stirling, March 13
• ‘The Wisconsin Moment: embodied interaction in collaborative recall experiments’ (joint work with Kath Bicknell and Celia Harris), PPIG (Phil, Psych, Information Group) seminar series talk, University of Edinburgh, March 11 (plus pre-talk graduate seminar, March 6)
• ‘Place and memory: constructing the past from multiple traces’, Leverhulme Lecture in Dept of Philosophy visiting speaker seminar series, University of Stirling, February 29 (recording here, passcode XEPIsh5$)
• ‘Distributed remembering and the aesthetics of superposition’, talk for interdisciplinary research cluster ‘Valuing Memory’, University of Stirling, February 26
• ‘Descartes and cognitive theory 30 years after Gaukroger’, online talk at conference in honour of Stephen Gaukroger, Sydney/ hybrid, February 19-21

2023

• Alex Gillett and Mac Mingon will present our joint work ‘Towards a cognitive ecology of collaborative wayfinding’, ASPP, ANU, Canberra, December 6-8
• Short presentation at Memory and Space roundtable, with our research team ‘Walking/ Mapping Memory/ Vertigo-Emptiness-Memory’ with Robyn Backen, Chris Chesher, & John Tonkin, Sydney College of Arts, December 6
• ‘Moving memories: social and distributed emotion-regulation in the city’, talk at workshop on brain principles & urban design: memory and emotions, NAAD, IAUV, Venice, November 23-24
• ‘What is it like to bat? Hitting, thinking, and the mind-body problem’, work-in-progress talk, Department of Philosophy, University of Stirling, November 16
• ‘The Wisconsin Moment: embodied interaction in collaborative recall experiments’ (joint work with Kath Bicknell and Celia Harris), talk at ArgLab (Laboratory of Argumentation, Cognition, and Language), Lisbon, November 10
• ‘Varieties of disruption in cognitive technologies of memory and navigation’, invited talk for workshop ‘Cognitive Ecologies, Values, and Disruptive Technologies‘, Lisbon, Portugal, November 8-9
• ‘Navigating the past together: constructive memory and the aesthetics of superposition’, online talk for conference ‘Thinking Together: collective memory and collective knowledge‘, Western Australia, October 31 to November 2
• ‘Navigating the past together: memories and places’, talk at workshop on Distributed Memory with Mark Rowlands, University of Edinburgh, Monday October 16
• ‘What is it like to bat? Hitting, thinking, and the mind-body problem’, invited keynote talk at International Association for Philosophy of Sport 50th annual conference, Split, Croatia, September 19-22
• ‘Cognitive, affective, and ecological components of joint expertise’, workshop on group know-how and joint expertise, University of Antwerp, Sept 4-5
• Short talk on memory, space, and art with Robyn Backen and John Tonkin‘s research group, August 15
• Roundtable organiser and speaker, ‘Spatial and social ecologies of embodied remembering: affects, places, skills‘, with Steven Brown, Emily Keightley, Eric Laurier, and Paula Reavey, July 3-7, Memory Studies Association annual conference 2023, University of Newcastle
• Keynote talk, ‘The Wisconsin Moment: embodied interaction in collaborative recall experiments’ (joint work with Kath Bicknell and Celia Harris), GEM ‘Generative Episodic Memory’ conference 2023, Bochum, Germany
• PhD symposium on scientific career planning, development, and interdisciplinary accidents, with Ricarda Schubotz, as part of GEM ‘Generative Episodic Memory’ conference 2023, Bochum, Germany
• ‘Realism and Anachronism in the History of Distributed Cognition’, talk at Edinburgh University workshop ‘The History of Distributed Cognition‘, from the HDC project, May 22
• ‘Making Space: arts and movement‘, workshop with Andy Auld for the University of Stirling‘s Art Collection Open Day, May 20
• I organized a workshop on ‘Memory, Place, and Material Culture‘ at the Paris Institute for Advanced Studies, May 16-17: all the talks are online here, enjoy!
• ‘The Wisconsin Moment: embodied interaction  in collaborative recall experiments’ (joint work with Kath Bicknell and Celia Harris), Institut Jean Nicod, April 7; also presented online for the Institute of Philosophy of Mind and Cognition, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, on May 26 (click here for a video recording of this talk); and for the philosophy department at the Universite de Technologie Compiegne outside Paris on June 5th.
• Talk on ‘Place and the Philosophy of Situated Cognition’ for Pablo Fernandez Velasco‘s graduate research seminar group on the philosophy of place at Trinity College Dublin, April 13
• Keynote, ‘Cognitive history and historical cognitive science: bodies, skills, places’, at Historical Cognitive Science: brains, minds, motions, Lyon, March 10-11
• ‘Creative engagement with difficult places: remembering, imagining, reenacting’, invited talk to Literature, Cognition, and Emotions research group, University of Oslo, February 8, hosted by Karin Kukkonen and in a double bill with Mike Wheeler
• ‘Place and Memory: cognitive ecologies of lands and cities’, Paris Institute for Advanced Study, January 17, with discussant Justin E.H. Smith (and follow-up session January 24)

2022

• Talk for book launch, Organizational Cognition: the theory of social organizing, edited by Davide Secchi, Rasmus Gahrn-Andersen, & Stephen J. Cowley (Routledge, 2022), Southern Denmark University, Odense, November 17
• ‘Meshing Minds: interdependence and vulnerability in the cognitive sciences‘, invited public lecture in series Mind in the Anthropocene, Danish Institute for Advanced Studies, Southern Denmark University, Odense, November 16
• with Mac Mingon, introductory talk for discussion of ‘Why Robots Can’t Haka‘, Embodied Underground research group with Dor Abrahamsen, online/ UC Berkeley, November 1
• ‘Place and Memory: familiarity, perspectives, collaboration’, keynote talk, philosophy of memory satellite workshop, German Philosophy Association annual conference, Humboldt University, Berlin, September 16
• ‘Group know-how and joint expertise’, introduction to convened symposium, Social Ontology and Collective Intentionality conference, University of Vienna, August 23-26
• with Mac Mingon, introductory talk for discussion of ‘Why Robots Can’t Haka‘, workshop on Embodied Cognition and Dance, online and Columbia University, August 15-19
• ‘Place and memory: navigating the past together’, keynote talk, AAP (Australasian Association of Philosophy) annual conference, Canberra, July 4-7
• ‘Navigating the past together: cognitive ecologies of remembering’, invited talk at hybrid conference on embodied, extended, and enactive memory, Bochum and online, May 23-25
• with Lyn Tribble, introductory talk for discussion of draft work on Cognitive Ecologies, INCTP online performance reading group with Rhonda Blair, May 20
• ‘Place and memory: cognitive maps and remote spatial memory’, online talk at ASPP (Australasian Society for Philosophy and Psychology) conference, February 17-19
• Discussion of my 2010 paper Carelessness and inattention: mind-wandering and the physiology of fantasy from Locke to Hume. at the Attention, Narrative, and Self online reading group with Regina Fabry and Jelle Bruineberg, February 9

2021

• ‘Memory, place, and distributed cognition: inhabiting the past together’, online talk in the Frankfurt Memory Studies platform seminar series organised by Astrid Erll and Tilmann Habermas, November 30
• ‘Place and memory’, weekly fellow’s seminar talk at the Durham Institute for Advanced Study, November 29
• ‘Maps and memory’, talk at Durham Representing Memory project workshop, November 17
• ‘Personal memory, the scaffolded mind, and cognitive change in the Neolithic’, public lecture in Hatfield College Chapel for the Institute for Advanced Study, October 28; and online for the Bochum-Grenoble memory colloquium, November 25
• ‘Teamwork and trouble: risks and rewards of interdisciplinary collaboration‘, invited keynote talk at workshop on interdisciplinarity, Northern Bridge PhD training consortium annual conference, October 27
• ‘Why “cognitive” and why “ecologies”?’, introductory video talk for Cognitive Ecologies Lab group presentation to Macquarie University Anthropology Dept seminar series, October 26
• ‘Representation, distribution, mapping’, *in-person* (!) seminar talk at Durham Representing Memory project, at the Institute for Advanced Study, October 19
• Online masterclass ‘Memory studies and cognitive theory’ for Jeff Olick‘s graduate seminar in memory studies, September 28
• Short online talk about Collaborative Embodied Performance: ecologies of skill, forthcoming edited book, with Lyn Tribble and Greg Downey, for Cognitive Futures in the Humanities online conference ‘Convergence’, September 24
• ‘Representing memory: as scaffolded, (visuo-)spatial, skilful, situated, and social’, online advance talk for Durham Representing Memory project, June 29
• Short talk at online info session for potential applicants to ARC College of Experts, June 11
• ‘Never did I discover a memory in dreaming’: Halbwachs on dreams, mental work, and social frameworks. Talk at Dreaming and Memory online conference, Grenoble/ Tübingen, February 23, and for the Mo-Hu/ Models of the Human online seminar series, for the Threshold Worlds project, University of Durham, February 26

2020

• ‘Distributed traces and the causal theory of constructive memory’ (with Gerard O’Brien), Current Controversies in Philosophy of Memory online conference, October
• ‘The Wisconsin moment: a cognitive ethnography of collaborative memory experiments’ (with Kath Bicknell & Celia Harris), short talk at Quali-Quanti online symposium for CILC-5, Conference on Interactivity, Language, & Cognition, organised from Warsaw
• Talks cancelled due to COVID-19 include at U Southern Denmark (Odense), September; keynote at International Association for Philosophy of Sport, Split, Croatia, September
• ‘Distributed creativity: domains, dimensions, differences’, invited talk, Murray Smith workshop, Macquarie, March
• ‘Directions in mesh: response to Shaun Gallagher’, invited talk, Wollongong skills conference, February

2019

• ‘Distributed creativity: why collaboration (sometimes) feels good’, invited keynote, creativity and wellbeing workshop, University of Melbourne, November 26
• ‘Moving minds: emotion, memory, and embodied skill’, aka ‘Opening memory studies by opening memory’, invited keynote, inaugural conference, Africa chapter, Memory Studies Association, University of Pretoria, South Africa, October 17-19
• ‘Varieties of psychological interdependence’, Sutton-Fest day, University of Edinburgh, August 7
• ‘Maurice Halbwachs and memory studies’, and (with Tim Fawns) ‘Remembering non-witnessed events: everyday second-hand memory’, Memory Studies conference, Madrid, June 26-28
• ‘Distributed cognition and creative editing’ (with Karen Pearlman), Cognitive Humanities conference, Mainz, Germany, June 18-23.
• (Also attended: Philosophy of Memory 2, Grenoble, July; World Congress of Science and Medicine in Cricket, Loughborough, July; Music & Philosophy, London, July; PBDB 13, Dolphin Beach, August; CAVE Dementia workshop, Sydney, August; CEPET annual conference, Macquarie, November)

2018

• ‘The cultural evolution of personal memory’, Presidential address, inaugural conference of the ASPP (Australasian Society for Philosophy and Psychology), Macquarie, December 5-7.
• ‘New questions about shared histories and distributed creativity’ (with Karen Pearlman), Culture & Cognition day, Macquarie, October 8.
• ‘Autobiographical memory, the scaffolded mind, and cognitive norms in the Neolithic’, AAP (Australasia Association of Philosophy) conference, Victoria University Wellington, July 8-13; at PBDB (Philosophy of Biology at Dolphin Beach) 12, August 10-12; and at Evolving Minds/ Dennett in Darwin, Charles Darwin University, September 17-19.
• ‘Historical variability in distributed and collaborative emotion regulation’, invited keynote, final conference of CHE, the ARC Centre for the History of Emotions, Perth, June 14-15
• ‘Collaborative remembering in everyday life: an ethnography of a memory experiment’ (with Kath Bicknell), Performance Studies seminar, Sydney Uni, June 8.
• ‘Collaborative skills in autobiographical memory: memory beyond memory’, invited talk, Naturally Evolving Minds, Wollongong, February 20-23.

2017

• Discussant, Predictive Processing workshop with Andy Clark, Macquarie, December 11-13.
• ‘Episodic memory, the scaffolded mind, and cognitive change in the Neolithic’, Philosophy of Memory workshop, Adelaide, December 7-8.
• Attended ASARG (Australasian Skill Acquisition Research Group) meeting, Brisbane, November 20-21.
• ‘Shared remembering and distributed emotion’, talk in Philosophy, Macquarie, October 31.
• Discussant, Minds, Bodies, Intentions in Renaissance Literature, Durham, September 13-15.
• Conversions project annual meeting, Montreal, August 24-26.
• ‘Forms of remembering: Neolithic changes in memory and material culture’, invited talk, Consciousness and creativity at the dawn of settled life: the test-case of Çatalhöyük, Çatalhöyük, Turkey, July 25-31.
• ‘Otto in the wild: dementia and distributed cognition’, invited keynote, Issues in Philosophy of Memory, Cologne, July 10-13.
• Discussant, The Philosophy and Practice of Improvisation: improvisation in arts, Copenhagen, June 11-14.
• ‘Cognitive ecologies and tacit knowledge: the transmission of collaborative embodied skills’, symposium on tacit knowledge with Georg Theiner,
  Cognitive Humanities, Stony Brook, June 5-7.
• The Distributed Cognitive Ecologies of Collaborative Embodied Skills, Full-day workshop, Institute of Philosophy, London, 26 May
• ‘Shared remembering and distributed affect: intimacy, memory, and emotion-regulation’, Memory Workshop Project PERFECT (Birmingham), Cambridge, May 5.
• ‘Emotional skills and the mental game in Australian professional cricket’
  presentation to Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association, Melbourne, April 21.
• ‘Creative practice and distributed cognition’, Film Editing as Distributed Cognition workshop, with Karen Pearlman
  Macquarie Uni, Sydney, March 15.
• ‘Emotional skills and the mental game in Australian professional cricket’
  presentation to Australian Cricketers’ Association player agents’ meeting, Sydney, February 7.

2016 (selected talks only from here …)

• ‘Prosaic dispatches from a daylight world’, Shakespeare Association of America (SAA), seminar on Shakespeare and Cognition, New Orleans, March
• ‘Confusion and Mixture: The Historicity of Memory’, The Internal Senses in the Aristotelian Tradition, Gothenburg, June
• Two talks on memory and collaboration at ICOM-6, the 6th International Conference on Memory, Budapest, July
• ‘Sharing cognitive futures (and pasts): small groups and shared histories’
  History and Philosophy of Science Research Day, Sydney, October.
• ‘Shared remembering and distributed affect: notes on intimacy, memory, and emotion-regulation’, New Directions in Philosophy of Memory, Dunedin, November
• ‘Ten questions for cognitive history: small groups and autobiographical memory’
  Psychology, Biography, History, Workshop, Canberra, November.

2015

• ‘Interdisciplinarity and cognitive history: animal spirits, memory, and emotion’
  Methods Collaboratory, ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, Sydney, September. 

2014

• ‘Dimensions of group cognition’
  Thinking About Groups conference, Center for Subjectivity Research, Copenhagen.
• ‘Distributed cognitive ecologies of memory’
  Memory and the Power of Connectivity: Imagining What Might Be, Templeton Foundation workshop with Daniel Schacter, New York, June.

2013

• ‘Remembering as public practice: Wittgenstein, memory, and socially distributed cognition’
  36th International Wittgenstein Symposium: Mind, language, and action. Kirchberg am Wechsel, Austria, August.
• ‘Switching and mixing: The flexibility of perspectives in memory, imagery, and dreams’
  2nd Milan-York Workshop on Nonperceptual Sensuous States, Milan, June.

2012

• ‘Scaffolding, distributed cognition and compensation’
  Scaffolding Memory Across the Lifespan, Memory Day workshop, Sydney, November.

2010

• ‘Embodied Cognition in the time of Shakespeare: ghost gestures and anachronic traces’.
  Annual Meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America (SAA), Chicago, April. Plenary symposium on Shakespeare and the Extended Mind.
•  ‘The Disunity of “Memory”‘
  Keynote, Memory Studies Center, Lewis and Clark College, Portland,
• ‘Early Modern Memory Practices: explorations in cognitive history’
  Crossroads Visiting Lecturer, Program in Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS), University of North Carolina, March.

2009

• ‘Collaboration, Improvisation, and Embodied Interaction: after the philosophy of mind?’
  Keynote, Australasian Postgraduate Philosophy Conference, Sydney, April.

2008

• ‘The Disunity of “Memory”‘
  Visiting lecturer, keynote, Warwick Centre for Memory Studies, December.

2007

• ‘Imagery and point of view in dreams and personal memory’
  Melbourne Brain & Mind Club, Howard Florey Institute, Melbourne, September.
• ‘Embodied skills, social ontology, and the cognitive life of things’
  Keynote, 8th conference of the Australasian Society for Cognitive Science, Adelaide, July.
•  ‘How things (and people) develop a cognitive life (together): transitional objects and instructional nudges’
  RANZ College of Psychiatrists, Sydney.

2006

• ‘Remembering together: is there a social ontology of memory?’
  Minds, mobs, and memories: themes in Pettit, Sydney, November.
• ‘The neurophilosophy and neuropsychiatry of dreaming’
  6th International Congress of Neuropsychiatry, Sydney, September.
• ‘The cognitive life of things’
  Extended Mind 2: just when you thought it was safe to go back in the head, Hertfordshire, July.
• ‘How to share a memory’
  Self to Self: the work of David Velleman, Canberra, April.
• ‘Construction and influence in autobiographical memory’
  Chemo-prophylactic Drugs in the Treatment of Traumatic Stress, Academy of Social Sciences workshop, Melbourne, February.

2004

• ‘The cognitive life of things: external memory and social memory in early modern culture’
  Inhabiting the Body/ Inhabiting the World, University of North Carolina, March.
• ‘What is memory?’
  An Integrated Science of Memory: are we there yet?, McDonnell Foundation workshop, San Diego, January.

2003

• ‘Language, memory, and concepts of memory: a case study in cognition and culture’
  Cross-cultural Linguistics and the Semantics of Memory, Sydney, November.
• ‘Representations and levels in distributed cognition and integrational linguistics’
  Distributed Cognition and Integrational Linguistics, Durban, March.

2002

• ‘Truth and memory’
  Proof and Truth: The Humanist as Expert, Australian Academy of the Humanities, Canberra, November.
• ‘Mechanism, physiology, and complexity in Descartes’
  International Descartes workshop, Brisbane, September.

1999

• ‘Nervous fluids and innards’
  Albrecht von Haller Lecturer, International Society for the History of the Neurosciences conference, Zurich, September.
• ‘Carelessness and inattention: chance and the physiology of habit from Locke to Hume’
  Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities, Edinburgh, September.
• ‘History and moral physiology’
  Origins of Modernity, Hong Kong, April.

(last updated 15 August 2024)